Hosoda Mamoru’s Belle, the most awaited animated feature, makes its way to official selection of the Cannes Film Festival and will make its world debut in the Cannes Premiere section on 15 July.
Hosoda is a well-established director who holds Academy Award and Golden Globes award nominations for his previous film Mirai. He also won the Annie Award for Best Feature Animation.
Belle‘s premiere at Cannes marks Hosoda’s second invitation to Cannes. His previous feature movie Mirai, made its debut at Cannes in 2018.
Commenting about Belle‘s premiere, happy and proud Hosoda said, “Following the selection of my previous film Mirai for the Directors’ Fortnight at the Cannes Film Festival, I am honored that Belle has been selected for the premiere section of the Official Selection. It is extremely rare for an animated film to be selected for the Festival de Cannes, and I believe that this selection is a sign to the audience of both the significance of this new film and the growing recognition of animated films in the future.”
The story follows Suzu, a 17-year-old high school student living in a rural village with her father. For years, she has only been a shadow of herself until one day she enters “U,” a virtual world of 5 billion members on the Internet. There, she is not Suzu anymore but Belle, a world-famous singer. She soon meets with a mysterious creature and they embark on a journey of adventures, challenges and love in their quest to become who they truly are.
The creative team of the film includes top Japanese and international artists like Jin Kim (Frozen, Tangled, Big Hero 6, Moana) who is doing the character design and created the look of Belle, the concept artist Eric Wong, as well as Oscar-nominated Wolfwalkers directors Tomm Moore and Ross Stewart of Cartoon Saloon (Song of the Sea, The Secret of Kells).
Belle will premiere in Japan on 16 July; Gkids will release it theatrically in both its original Japanese language and a English dubbed version.